Brass

“ I rub on the brass doors, and things begin to jump into my hands out of the shine of the brass. Faces, chimneys, elephants, yellow humming birds, and blue cornflowers, where I have seen grasshoppers sleeping two by two and two by two, they all come to the shine of the brass on the doors when I ask them to. If you shine brass hard, and wish as hard as the brass wishes, and keep on shining and wishing, then always things come jumping into your hands out of the shine of the brass. ”

“ My curiosity was excited, and I wished to hear all I could about modern arms, from the poniard to the pike, from the cutlass to the carbine, from the hand-grenade to the Congreve rocket, from the six-pounder to the big brass cannon at Bejapoor in Hindoostan, and from the horse-pistol in the houlster of a dragoon to the monster mortar used at the siege of Antwerp. ”

“ The smiling youthful faces of the figures in this most remarkable brass, and the modern-looking whiskers and beard and moustache, combined with the helmet, give a singularly unancient look to the wearers, and irresistibly call to mind what one has so often seen of late in the twentieth-century pageants. ”

“ My fireplace, which is deep, and nearly three feet wide, has a broad hearthstone in front of it, where the live coals tumble down, and a pair of gigantic brass andirons. The brasses are burnished, and shine cheerfully in the firelight, and on either side stand tall shovel and tongs, like sentries, mounted in brass. The tongs, like the two-handed sword of Bruce, cannot be wielded by puny people. ”

“ Right and left, before us and behind us, from the north of us and from the south of us, and from the east and the west of us, big guns and small ones, field pieces, howitzers, mortars and light batteries, both French and American but mostly French, joined in, like the wind, the wood and the brass of an orchestra obeying the baton of the leader. ”

“ The brass band itself, when we consider it philosophically, is one of the most striking things in our civilization. We admire its commonly splendid clothes, its drums and cymbals and braying brass, but it is the impartial spirit with which it lends itself to our varying wants that distinguishes it. ”

“ How far removed are we from those simple joys! To charm the populace in these days you need ophicleides, saxhorns, trombones, cornets, every imaginable sort of brass, with big drums and little drums and, to beat time, a gun-shot. ”

“ You brace yourself, you grip desperately a pair of brass handles in front of you, while leviathan hesitates, seems to sit up on his haunches, and then gently buries his nose in the pasty clay and paws his way upward into the field beyond. ”

“ The most splendid exhibition of the day was that of the brass-founders and braziers. The procession was headed by a man dressed in a suit of burnished plate armour of brass, and mounted on a handsome black horse, the reins being held by pages ... wearing brass helmets.... A man in a complete suite of brass armour ... ”

“ A brass bowl, hammered out of the solid; two brass vessels, made of small pieces most curiously riveted together; a brooch of handsome workmanship; a variety of bone pins and implements; deer-horn combs, of very great artistic merit; horn discs, like backgammon men; knives, hooks, and hatchets of iron; swords and spear-heads; an iron implement, like what a baker uses for putting his loaves in the oven, made of sheet iron, curiously riveted together, and having in the centre a circular ornament, with a cross in it, that has evidently once had an arabesque pattern on it ”

“ Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.’ [175] Hiram of Tyre was ‘cunning to work all works in brass’ (casting and hammer-wrought) , for Solomon’s Temple, which dates from about two centuries after the time of the Trojan war (b.c. 1200) . In Ezra (viii. 27) the text mentions ‘two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold;’ and the margin reads ‘yellow or shining brass.’ Nor is the old word quite forgotten: we still speak of a ‘brass gun.’
‘In the Brazen Age,’ unphilosophically says Schlegel (‘Phil. of Hist.’ sect. ii.) ”

“ There is an additional advantage which the brass possesses over the stone monument, and that is that the brass is found as a memorial of members of every class of society—the knight, the noble, the bishop, the abbot, the priest, the nun, the lord of the manor, the judge, the lawyer, the University don, the merchant, the wool-stapler, the yeoman, women of every rank, and even the schoolboy, have their brasses. ”

“ Is a scale of sheet-brass, the graduations of which are the sines of each quarter of a degree to a radius equal to the distance between the muzzle-sight of the piece, and the axis of vibration of the hausse, which is one inch in rear of the base-ring. At the lower end of the scale is a brass bulb filled with lead. The slider which marks the divisions on the scale is of thin brass, and is clamped at any desired division on the scale by means of a screw. ”

“ I have frequently watched a party of soldiers winding along a pass, with their white trousers, red coats, white cross-belts and brass plates, at about four hundred yards, and thought what a raking that rifle would give a body, of troops in such colors for a mark. ”

“ Is a graduated quarter of a circle of sheet-brass of 6 inches radius, attached to a brass rule 22 inches long. It has an arm carrying a spirit-level at its middle and a vernier at its movable end. To get a required elevation, the vernier [208] is fixed at the indicated degree, the brass rule is then inserted in the bore parallel to the axis of the piece; the gun is then elevated or depressed until the level is horizontal. There is also a graduated quadrant of wood, of 6 inches radius, attached to a rule 23.5 inches long. ”

“ No. 1 is a section of the cutting-board, showing the groove in which the piece of brass runs. 2, The brass, to which is attached the thumb-screws, by means of a screw through the eye at B. 3 3 3, Thumb-screws, to screw down the ruler upon the paper. The brass rule should not be less than an eighth of an inch in thickness, otherwise it may bend; if steel it will do a little less. ”

“ Macklin says: “Brasses give a complete pictorial history of the use and development of armour, dress, and ecclesiastical vestments from the thirteenth to the end of the seventeenth century.... All these (members of every class of society) we see, not in fancy sketches, but in actual contemporary portraits.” Perhaps one of the greatest values of the brass is that it is a great and authentic record of middle-class costume during the Middle Ages. ”

“ Porta, in his “Natural Magick,” folio, English edition, 1658, gives an account, in the 12th Book, how “A brass gun once fired, may discharge ten times.” He says, “It is a new invention, that a great brass-gun, or hand-gun, may discharge 10 or more bullets one after another without intermission. ”

“ The mean range of a 12-pounder brass gun, which, with the usual shot, was 1640 yards, was, with the shot whose centres of gravity and of figure were not coincident, the centre of gravity being upwards, equal to 2140 yards, being an increase of 500 yards. ”

“ Fifth, the top brass may be made a handsliding fit to the strap without springing the strap open, which being already under a tension because of the spring due to the bottom brass, will be more rigid and permit of a tighter degree of top brass fit, without springing open and away from the rod. ”

“ In the earliest ages, whose manners have been delineated by history, we find the weapons of their warriors invariably framed of this fictitious metal. Military nations were naturally studious of brightness in their arms: and the Ancient Britons, particularly, gloried in the neatness of theirs. Hence various nations continued to fabricate their arms of brass, even after the discovery of iron. ”

“ Some of the articles manufactured of brass, are forged to the required form, and others are made of rolled sheets; but, in most cases, they pass through the hands of the brass-founder, who liquifies the metal, and pours it into moulds of sand. For the sake of lightness, and economy of material, many articles are made hollow ”

“ In the progress of the commerce, they would deal for nothing but metal; and, at length, brass was so eagerly sought for, in preference to iron, that, before the navigators quitted the place, scarcely a bit of brass was left in the ships, except what belonged to the different instruments. ”

“ And he made for the altar a grating of network of brass, under the ledge round it beneath, reaching halfway up. And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grating of brass, to be places for the staves. And he made the staves of acacia wood, and overlaid them with brass. And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made it hollow with planks.
And he made the laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, of the mirrors of the serving women which served at the door of the tent of meeting. ”

“ The slingers were generally bare-headed, and wore no body armour. The archer wears a coif of mail or leather on his head, and a sleeveless hauberk on his body. The third soldier carries a pole-axe, a sword, and a spear. (Fig. 9) : Head from the brass of Sir John D’Abernoun, in Stoke D’Abernoun Church, Surrey, 1277. This is the earliest known example of brass. The chain mail is represented in great detail, every link being shown. Fig. A is a portion of the mail enlarged. (Fig. 10) : A spear with pennon, from the same brass. ”

“ And as the crash of wood-cutting men arises in the dells of a mountain, and the sound is heard from afar; so the noise of these, smitten with swords and two-edged spears, arose from the wide-extended plain, from brass, from leather, and from well-prepared bull's-hide shields. ”

“ A number of short pieces of brass, jointed together, and made to resemble a row of trellis work, may, by distending the joints in an horizontal direction, be made to go in the smallest compass; and again, by closing the arms, the machine will be elevated. An ingenious mechanic has constructed a fire-escape upon this principle, of which a model is preserved in the Museum of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. ”

“ Brass-bands are confined by the narrow capacity of brass instruments to a limited range of executive possibility; but good work done, in whatsoever shape, is worthy of praise. Let us point out some mistakes frequently made. Some conductors wish to widen the legitimate range of brass-bands by adding brass clarinets to them. ”

“ In those days many bits had brass bosses attached to their cheek bars, and many of these attractive ornaments have been unearthed. Some bosses are decorated with raised designs while others are plain. The majority are made of brass, although a few iron bosses have been excavated. ”

“ A brass banner rod, seven inches long, also connects with this rod and, passing through an inch opening, is supported in the flame of an alcohol lamp and fastened on the opposite side by a tiny brass knob screwed on the protruding thread of the rod. A small pulley and weight steadies the motion of the lever. ”

“ We saw some boys, about twelve or fourteen years old, who had spiral circles of thick brass-wire passed three or four times round their arms, above the elbow, and some men wore rings of ivory, two inches in breadth, and above an inch in thickness, upon the same part of the arm ”

“ There is also a very interesting brass group of natives occupied in various ways, one, for instance, carrying a package on his shoulder illustrating the method of relieving the weight of the bundle by a forehead strap, by which means natives are enabled to sustain the strain. ”

“ That a proper quantity of this powder rammed into a hollow tube of brass or iron, according to its bigness, would drive a ball of iron or lead, with such violence and speed, as nothing was able to sustain its force. That the largest balls thus discharged, would not only destroy whole ranks of an army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the ground, sink down ships, with a thousand men in each, to the bottom of the sea ”

“ In the brass at Grene’s Norton, mentioned above, however, a curious modification occurs; the misericorde, which is of huge dimensions and like an anelace in some respects, is slung perpendicularly in front, and the sword suspended on the left side. ”

“ And after presenting arms, during which the clang of the band, letting loose, rang out like a brass kettle rolling downstairs, all the guns were lowered. ”

“ Much of the ornamental brasswork seen in many parts of the world comes from Benares, for which the Hindu Mecca is famed. Small idols and images in brass or other materials are made in large quantities. The brassworkers sit down while turning out their product. ”

“ Like untuned golden strings all women are,
Which long time lie untouched, will harshly jar.
Vessels of brass, oft handled, brightly shine. ”

“ Brass (?) , n.; pl. Brasses (?) . [OE. bras, bres, AS. br‘s; akin to Icel. bras cement, solder, brasa to harden by fire, and to E. braze, brazen. Cf. 1st & 2d Braze.] 1. An alloy (usually yellow) of copper and zinc, in variable proportion, but often containing two parts of copper to one part of zinc. It sometimes contains tin, and rarely other metals.
2. (Mach.) A journal bearing, so called because frequently made of brass. A brass is often lined with a softer metal, when the latter is generally called a white metal lining. See Axle box, Journal Box, and Bearing. ”

“ These are usually of brass, and are stamped up out of solid or sheet brass by placing it between dies, and allowing a heavy weight to drop upon the upper die from a height of from five to fifteen feet. ”

“ Lumps of pyrites or sulphuret of iron, the color of which is near to that of brass.
μ The word brass as used in Sculpture language is a translation for copper or some kind of bronze.
μ Brass is often used adjectively or in selfÐexplaining compounds; as, brass button, brass kettle, brass founder, brass foundry or brassfoundry.
Brass band (Mus.) , a band of musicians who play upon wind instruments made of brass, as trumpets, cornets, etc. Ð Brass foil, Brass leaf, brass made into very thin sheets; Ð called also Dutch gold. ”